1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a data relaying apparatus disposed in a network including meta-information and contents independently managed, a data relaying method in the data relaying apparatus, and a data relay processing program executed by a computer that is the data relaying apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, contents such as document data, video data, and music data are transmitted and received over a network.
Important contents among these contents may strongly require management of distribution situations. In such a case, for example, as shown in FIG. 15, computers and data relaying apparatuses 702 on the server side and the client side are provided with a log function.
A distribution situation managing apparatus 703 collects and integrally manages logs for applications recorded in computers 701 and logs of the network layer (transmission sources, destinations, access times, etc.) recorded in the data relaying apparatuses 702. This enables management of distribution situations of contents.
For example, as shown in FIG. 16, if contents are transmitted from a content server 704 to a client terminal 705, data relaying apparatuses 706 relaying the contents extract meta-information added to the contents to correlate and store the meta-information with the log of the network layer.
The distribution situation managing apparatus 703 collects and manages information stored in the data relaying apparatuses 706. This enables management of distribution situations of contents.
By the way, the management of communication record shown in FIG. 15 is smoothly performed on the premise that the computers 701 on the server side and the client side are suitably operated/managed and that the computers certainly record the log.
Therefore, a system administrator or a user with IT skills suitably operating/managing the computers is absolutely necessary.
However, few employees have sufficient IT skills in the case of small clinics and offices and computers are not necessarily operated/managed suitably in many cases.
In such a case, communication records may not certainly be collected by the computers due to infection with a computer virus, a failure of computers, etc., and it is problematic that the credibility of the communication records deteriorates in a field requiring strict communication records.
If computers collect logs, the communication records are at risk of being altered by end users since the logs may easily be altered.
It is problematic that communication records of computers without the log function may not be managed.
Therefore, when communication records are managed, the method of using meta-information of FIG. 16 is more desirable than the method shown in FIG. 15.
Contents are generally given meta-information and many systems utilize the meta-information (e.g., Japanese Patent Application Laid-open Publication No. 2005-141507). Therefore, it is conceivable that the management of communication records with the above method is easily introduced into such systems.
Recently, XDS (Cross-enterprise Document Sharing) is planned in medical institutions handling medical care information (electronic medical charts and medical images of patients), which is a highly important content.
The XDS enables continuous utilization of medical care information of patients with medical care information and meta-information stored in separate servers instead of storing medical care information along with meta-information in a server.
Specifically explaining with reference to FIG. 17, first, it is assumed that medical care information of a patient is created in a medical institution “B”.
The medical care information is stored in a repository server 707 in the medical institution “B”, and meta-information of the medical care information is stored in a registry server 708 in a registry institution.
When the same patient receives medical care from a medical institution “A”, a client terminal 709 in the medical institution “A” requests the registry server 708 to retrieve the medical care information of the patient.
The requested registry server 708 retrieves corresponding meta-information from the stored meta-information with the use of a patient ID, etc.
As a result of the retrieval, the registry server 708 transmits information indicating the location of medical care information (such as URI (Uniform Resource Identifier)) included in the meta-information to the client terminal 709.
The client terminal 709 receives the information indicating the location and acquires target medical care information from the repository server 707 in the medical institution “B” indicated by the information.
This provides a system enabling continuous utilization of medical care information of patients without the need for creating new medical care information if a patient receives medical care from a medical institute different from the previous one.
Since the medical care information includes not only personal information but also information not desired to be known to others, strict control is strongly required for the management of distribution situations of medical care information when XDS is implemented.
That is, it is desirable to certainly manage when, by whom, from where to where, and what information is utilized to put restrictions on unauthorized takeout, etc., of medical care information.
Since the meta-information stored in the registry server 708 includes a file name, a patient name, age, etc., it is desirable to store meta-information of medical care information and the log of the network layer into a data relaying apparatus relaying the medical care information when medical care information is acquired from the repository server 707. As a result, management may certainly be performed for when, by whom, from where to where, and what information is utilized.
However, since the meta-information and the medical care information are separately stored and the repository server 707 transmits only the medical care information to the client terminal 709, it is difficult to manage distribution situations with the use of the meta-information as shown in FIG. 16.
It is problematic that the strict management of distribution situations of contents is difficult in an environment with meta-information and contents separately managed as represented by XDS.